The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-03-26
TEMPLES OF TRADE.
New York's Most Important Business steuo-
lures and Some of Their Occupants.

new YOrkS MOST Important DusiHcSS StNuO.
lures and Some of Their Occupants.
In New York the business structures
tain greater height than anywhere
else in the world. Some are $50 feet to
the roof and others 225 feet to the top
of the towers which surmount them;
$50 feet is much higher than the ordi-
nary church steeple, and 225 feet is
much higher than any in the United
States, with the exception of perhaps
score of sacred edifices.
The Produce Exchange tower or cam
panile looms 225 feet above ancient
Bowling Green, and that on the Western
Union Building. on higher ground,
seems to reach nearly the same altitude.
The new Petroleum Exchange, to be
finished next, will cost half million
of dollars and will be much finer
building than the Stock Exchange.
Every resource is exhausted in the
construction of these palatial business
buildings; their foundations are laid
forty feet below the level of the street
and the masonry is as solid rs that of
an old Roman aqueduct Where the
soil seems to be yielding piles are driven
down; they are from thirty to forty feet
IN length, being the trunks of trees
brought from New Brunswick and Nova
Scotia The Produce Exchange rests
on 15,437 of these trees, so that the
brokers are trading on the top of an old
forest
In these fine structures there are
usually two completed stories below the
street, and above this rise eight or ten
stories more. Rents are enormous.
The buildings pay from to per cent.
and in one case at least, / understand,
10 per cent. on the money invested.
The well-known Mills buildingon Broad
Street cost 81, 700, 900. Thirteen build
ings were torn down to secure its site.
1t was erected by D. o. Mills, once
hack driver and now worth $40, 900, 900.
The total amount of rent derived from
this magnificent building approXimates
$780, 900 a year.
Here are the offices Of C. P. Hunting
ton, d. o. Mills and other California
and transcontinental magnates, as well
as such bankers and brokers as the
Seligmans, Henry Clews, President
James Smith, of the Stock Exchange;
the Kissams, brothers of Mrs. William
H. Vanderbilt, and others. Henry
Clews, believe. pays S. square foot
for his SPLENDID offices, the finest and
most elegantly fitted up of any broker
of stocks or grain in the metropolis,
and which cost him about $50, 900 a year
This enormous rent does not seem large
to man who made 100000 last
year.
The halls in some Of these commercial
palaces are as wide as some of the
streets of Boston or old Italian cities,
and the stairs could accommodate
twenty men abreast. In some of the
larger structures there are six or eight
elevators constantly ascending and de-
scending. and a glance downward
seems like looking into the bottomless
pit. The Produce Exchange has ten.
The most cosby of these commercial
buildings is that of well-known life
insurance company on Broadway near
Cedar street, which origi nally cost
81, 000 900, and "a recent extension cost
ing another million. The signal service
orps here occupies a tower oa the roof,
and the janitor has another, and his
children have playground an acre in
extent 125 feet above roaring Broadway.
The company provides for tenants a law
library of 1000 volumes, and the Insur-
ance Club and Down Town Law Club
have their rooms there. The president
of the company, by the way, receives
a salary of $97, 200 year
The building of well-known insur-
ance company on Nassau street is par
ticularly notable for its architectural
and artistic splendor. The marble halls
are wainscoted with marble; the princi-
pal rooms are finished in mahogany.
The Chamber of Commerce has it's
rooms there, with a picture gallery of
more than sixty merchants. dating back
to the days of the Colonial government.
Some of the more ancient business
worthless wear the small clothes, en-
broidered waistcoats and the neckcloth
of the quaint old days of New York,
when such splendid business structures
rs this would have appeared sheer mad
ness. Two of these portraits are of
Alexander Hamilton and John Sherman,
former Secretaries of the Treasury. In
this building, by the way, ex-President
Arthur had fine offices, and next to him
in the last presidential campaign Cen
eral Benjamin f. Butler had his
quarters. Another fine structure is
the United Bank Building, at the cor
ner of Wall street and Broadway, where
General Grant once had his office; it
was in the basement of this building
that Ferdinand Ward concocted his
gigantic and now historic swindle,.
On one of the upper floors Roscoe
Conklng has his offices, and on the
seventh floor is the new financial power,
Alfred Sully, keen, quick and scholarly.
Further up Broadway is the great